Trails of Cold Steel II - Relentless Edition Review

Falcom are masters at crafting incredible RPGs and one of their best is now available in a cool collector's edition for PS4.

This Relentless Edition comes with some very cool stuff

The game

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II is a wonderful JRPG that acts as a perfect sequel to the original game but I've already reviewed it back in 2016. So, if you'd like to learn all about it then be sure to read my full review. For now, I'll just say that if you haven't played the original Trails of Cold Steel, don't bother with this sequel yet as the first game does an excellent job of setting up the basic story and characters while this sequel takes those established elements and runs with them in a much more exciting narrative.

Thankfully, if you already own the PS3 or Vita version then you can transfer your save file over to this PS4 release. It took me a little while to figure out how to do this but it was much appreciated once I finally imported my old save file.

PS4 differences

Believe it or not, this PS4 version of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II isn't merely a straight port of the PS3 version. In fact, there are many improvements. For starters, you can now enjoy the adventure in 4k resolution at 60 frames per second if you play it on a PS4 Pro. That being said, there are many reports of occasional slowdown while playing it on a Pro so keep that in mind. If you're playing on a regular PS4 then you can still enjoy 1080p resolution and faster loading times compared to the PS3 version. On top of that, there is much more English voice acting so many text-only scenes from the PS3 version are now fully voiced. You can also swap to the Japanese voice actors if you prefer which is a welcome inclusion. Lastly, all of the DLC from the PS3 version is included as well and you now have access to Turbo Mode which speeds up the gameplay substantially by holding a button. Wow, that's a lot of improvements!

Claire and Sharon unleash a perfectly timed Link Attack

What's in the box?

The Relentless Edition of Trails of Cold Steel II contains a handful of cool bonuses. First, you get a nifty SteelBook case which houses the disc and manual. I personally find the front and back images to be fairly generic but it has a gorgeous interior. The 50 page instruction booklet is comprehensive and includes a funny comic strip series called "Alisa Reinford's Cold Steel Crash Course!" that contains 5 silly comics over 10 pages. Next, there's the Musical Selections CD which features 23 tracks from the game that total over 78 minutes. Finally, you get 7 tarot-style Sept-Terrion cards which represent each elemental god and a metal Ouroboros pin that you can proudly attach to your jacket and hope that a fellow JRPG nerd spots you in the wild. All of this is contained within an attractive cardboard box.

Photos

Of course, I can talk about these goodies all day long but pictures are more valuable than words so I took photos of everything. Enjoy!

Bye, everyone! Hope to see you all again in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III!

This PS4 iteration of Trails of Cold Steel II is such an impressive improvement over the PS3 version that it's worth picking up a copy even if you already own it on PS3. Plus, the Relentless Edition physical extras will feel right at home for fans of the series.

+ Same top-notch JRPG with incredible gameplay and fantastic story and characters

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Thanks for reading my review of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - Relentless Edition. Feel free to ask any questions about the game or provide feedback and I'll gladly reply.

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Wow, congrats on the platinums! That must have taken forever. Right now, Trails of Cold Steel III is slated for October 22 - a day before my birthday! After seeing Lloyd Bannings and Rixia Mao in Trails of Cold Steel II's Divertissement , I really hope we get to actually play Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki in the west which comprise the story of The Legend of Heroes VII (the Cold Steel games being VIII). I think Falcom may just be my favourite RPG developer so, yes, more Ys, Xanadu, and Legend of Heroes, please! Also, a Gurumin remake or sequel would be amazing. That's one of my favourite action RPGs ever.